Skip to content

The Arts Incubator

Winnipeg, Manitoba

cropped-1.jpg
Primary Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • Winnipeg, Manitoba
    • Art Borups Corners
    • Artists, Collaborators And Mentors
    • Hubs
      • Borups Corners
      • Dyment Recreation Hall and Complex
      • Minneapolis, Minnesota
    • Funders and Supporters
      • Canada Council for the Arts
      • Global Dignity Canada
      • Local Services Board of Melgund
      • Manitoba Arts Council
      • Minneapolis College of Art and Design
    • Reports
      • 2023-2024 Report
      • 2021-2022 Report
    • Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Tracker
  • Projects
    • 2025 Climate Entrepreneurship Survey
    • Books and Short Stories
      • Barnes and Noble
      • Boekholt Boekhandels
      • eBook.de
      • Ex Libris
      • Fnac
      • Hugendubel
      • LaFeltrinelli Internet Bookshop
      • Lehmanns Media
      • Osiander
      • Palace Marketplace
      • Morawa
      • Orell Füssli
      • Standaard Boekhandel
      • Thalia
    • Food Security
      • Towards a Framework for Northern Food Systems Innovation
      • Food Preservation Training and Curriculum Development
      • Relationship Development and Engagement with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and University of Minnesota Duluth
      • Relationship Development and Engagement Activities with the University of the Arctic
      • The Art of Canning and Creative Entrepreneurship
      • Come Eat With Me: Manitoba Cookbook
    • Incubating Artificial Intelligence
      • Artist Bio Builder Writing Tool
      • Art Idea Generator
      • Asteroids
      • Northern AI Tools Get Trashy
      • Participatory Action Research Assistant
      • The Eco-Innovator’s Journey
      • Step Inside Your Content
    • Media Arts and Storytelling
    • Melgund Township Oral History Project
    • Recreation
      • Art Borups Corners
      • Arts and Recreation for an Aging Population
      • Creative Arts for Community Recreation
      • Facilities
        • The Cook Shack
        • Dyment Recreation Hall
        • Melgund Lake Boat Launch
        • Ice Fishing Shack
    • Stories & Publishing Skills
    • Youth Engagement
  • Resources
    • Adaptive Phased Management
    • Climate CO-STAR Builder (ECO_STAR)
    • Entrepreneurship Resources
    • Framework for Recreation in Canada
    • Funding Programs and Sources
    • Parks for All
    • The Common Vision
  • News
    • Borups Corners News
    • Creative Entrepreneurship
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Arts & Creative Leadership
    • Food Security and Innovation
    • Melgund Township News
    • Photos and Short Stories
    • Winnipeg
  • Events
    • Canada Day 2025
    • 2025-2026 Melgund Township Music Series
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Strawberries: From Pilot to Plenty
  • Food Security and Innovation
  • Photos and Short Stories

Strawberries: From Pilot to Plenty

Sweet success! Our first strawberries are ripe and ready.
Art Borups Corners June 24, 2025
The vibrant red of the first ripe strawberries emerges from the rich soil, marking a joyful milestone in this year's sustainable agriculture and food production program for northern Indigenous communities.

The vibrant red of the first ripe strawberries emerges from the rich soil, marking a joyful milestone in this year's sustainable agriculture and food production program for northern Indigenous communities.

First strawberries signal progress.

A vibrant splash of red against the rich earth this morning immediately caught our eyes. It was unmistakable: the first strawberries of the season had ripened! What a moment of real joy and a sign of all our hard work truly growing. It’s just over a year since we first planted the seeds of our sustainable agriculture and food production program, and these sweet berries are more than just a delicious treat. For us, they’re a symbol of how our collaborative dream for food security in northern Indigenous communities is really coming to life.

This year’s harvest wouldn’t be possible without the incredible foundation we laid with our pilot program last year, which got such fantastic support from Manitoba Agriculture’s Indigenous Food Systems and Agriculture program and the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. That initial project, which wrapped up in March of 2024, was all about tackling food insecurity by learning to work together. We brought so many different people to the table – local farmers, food producers, even folks who are experts in system innovation – always making sure the community’s voice and real data led the way.

Last year, we also had amazing help from places like the University of Minnesota Duluth, who gave us a hand with making supply chains smarter, and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, who taught us about experiential design and entrepreneurship.

A big part of what we’ve been doing over the past year has been beefing up our lessons and offering even more training. We aren’t just learning about food in theory; we got our hands dirty, learning to create, market, and sell food products. We also explored all sorts of avenues for cultural and food sector entrepreneurship. This whole approach, which is really rooted in sharing traditional knowledge, is helping people become more food-savvy and is a real step towards economic reconciliation. It also means we can share what we’ve learned and make this program work for other communities.

It’s just so rewarding to see all that effort quite literally bearing fruit, connecting the small, local ways of producing food with the bigger picture of building sustainable food systems.

As these first, perfectly red strawberries poke through, there’s just this incredible feeling of happiness and accomplishment. It’s such a powerful reminder that when we commit ourselves, work together, and truly respect each other and our communities, the seeds of new ideas can genuinely blossom into a wonderful harvest. It nourishes us, body and spirit. We couldn’t be happier to see this progress, and every single berry feels like a big step forward in building more food-secure and self-sufficient northern regions.

About the Author

Art Borups Corners

Art Borups Corners

Administrator

Art Borups Corners is a dynamic participatory arts collective and living lab, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. It's a space where innovation and creativity thrive. The program was founded in 2014, with its arts incubator established in 2021 and 2022 with funding and support from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse. Today, working with students and faculty from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, we fuse traditional and participatory media arts with artificial intelligence, music, storytelling and community-driven, land-based artist residencies to cultivate new voices and bold ideas. Whether through collaborative projects or immersive experiences, our small but vibrant community supports creators to explore, experiment, and connect. Join us at the intersection of artistry, technology, culture and community—where every moment is a new opportunity to create.

Visit Website View All Posts
Tags: SDG 15 SDG 2

Post navigation

Previous: Thank you James’ No Frills
Next: The White Admiral

Related News

Tony Eetak is one of several Arts Incubator Winnipeg artists who has been exploring the art of publishing this year.
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Power of the Press

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg October 20, 2025
Autumn-leaves-winnipeg-arts-incubator-manitoba-arts
  • Photos and Short Stories

Fall Colours

Tony Eetak October 19, 2025
Member of Parliament Giovanna Mingarelli
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Two Decades of Global Dignity

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg October 9, 2025

Recent Posts

  • Stories for the SDGs
  • New Centre Plans
  • The Community’s New Stories
  • Power of the Press
  • Storytelling Thrives

You may have missed

The methodology and philosophy behind this program, which uses the creative process of narrative construction as a primary vehicle for learning about and internalizing the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Community Projects
  • Winnipeg

Stories for the SDGs

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg October 23, 2025
nuclear-waste-centre-designs
  • Climate Entrepreneurship
  • Ontario

New Centre Plans

Art Borups Corners October 23, 2025
The-Communitys-New-Stories-Cover-2-640x1024.jpg
  • In Bookstores

The Community’s New Stories

Art Borups Corners October 22, 2025
Tony Eetak is one of several Arts Incubator Winnipeg artists who has been exploring the art of publishing this year.
  • Photos and Short Stories
  • Winnipeg

Power of the Press

The Arts Incubator - Winnipeg October 20, 2025

MANITOBA ARTS PROGRAMS

This platform, our Winnipeg, Manitoba hub and programs have been made possible with support from the Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program. We gratefully acknowledge their funding and support in making the work we do possible.

Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Arts Incubator was seeded and piloted with strategic arts innovation funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse. We thank them for their investment, supporting northern arts capacity building and bringing the arts to life.

Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse Logo

NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO ARTS PROGRAMS

This platform, our Northwestern Ontario hub and programs have been made possible with support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects Program. We gratefully acknowledge their funding and support in making the work we do possible.

Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects Program
Copyright ©2020-2025 All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.